View across a sand dune on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, June 2017. The view, looking north from the approximate intersection of the beach with East Wyoming Avenue, includes both homes and the man-made dunes and berms built in the wake of 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. (Photo by Interim Archives/Getty Images)
Reports of an aircraft crashing into the ocean off Long Beach Island are unfounded, the Ocean County Sheriff's Office said Thursday afternoon.
Following a 911 call for a plane crash, initial reports from beach patrols and law enforcement sources indicated that something had gone down into the ocean about a mile off of 26th Street.
What was first thought to be a plane with as many as three people aboard was later identified by sources as potentially an ultralight craft, a glider, or even a kiteboard.
The Coast Guard dispatched a helicopter and crews on the reports, joining a two-hour search with the beach patrol and New Jersey State Police.
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Video posted to social media showed an active search underway in very choppy waters, though the search turned up no indication of a crash.
Ultimately, though, authorities found nothing and called off the search.
